The Consequences of Destroying Wealth

A new study says the United States risks becoming another Argentina, a country that falls from first world to third world status through a series of self-inflicted, wealth destroying government policy mistakes.

Nobel prize winning economist James Buchanan has endorsed the study, saying "We have learned some things from comparable experiences of the 1930s' Great Depression, perhaps enough to reduce the severity of the current contraction. But we have made no progress toward putting limits on political leaders, who act out their natural proclivities without any basic understanding of what makes capitalism work."

After a scathing review of US economic policy, the study concludes with the anticipation that "a return to the kind of laissez-faire capitalism that evolved so successfully throughout the last two decades of the twentieth century once again will enjoy majority support in the not-too-far-distant future once the electorate begins to suffer the severe economic downside of the Bush and the Obama administrations’ anti-capitalist policies."

Entitled "Economic Contractions in the United States: A Failure of Government," the study was prepared by Charles K. Rowley and Nathanael Smith, and is a joint publication of the Locke Institute in the US and the Institute of Economic Affairs in the UK.

You can download a pdf version of the complete study here.